VaughnT

Great work! I've been trying to figure the process for doing handles like that, but haven't found a good tutorial on it.

I'd keep the Pendinghous if there was an absolute need to get rid of one. I prefer a thick waist and heel on my anvils, and the Pendinghous anvils are solid chunks of cast steel. No swayback and the edges look nice and sharp.... you just don't get better than that. However, having two anvils is a great thing even if you're just a hobby smith starting to learn the trade. Put the HB anvil on the ground and you can use it as an upsetting block. Put the Pendinghous on a low stand and you can use it with a sledge to make tooling (and not worry about the heel popping off). Keep the lighter anvil on a lighter stand so you can transport it around, doing the show circuit around your house. Plenty of reasons to have two good anvils in the shop. I'd be inclined to hold on to it and try recouping my money by making things to sell. Candleholders, hooks, scrolls.... there are a ton of things you can make and sell at local shops.

Very true. If the two ends are rubbing together, it acts like a resonance dampener.

Firstly, you have to support the triangle from a soft cord. If you have metal-to-metal contact, it kills the resonance and gives you a clanker rather than a ringer. Secondly, you've got to quench the steel. I usually quench the triangle after doing the second bend even though the thing's at a black heat.

Can't get people to buy it? Honestly, that's no surprise. Not only are you competing against mass-produced stuff, but you have to build your clientele. The types of people that buy the cheaper options aren't the kind of people that you should be marketing to. You need to create a story that people want to buy into. And, you have to have a ton of products for customers to choose from. Would you spend long in a store that only had one thing on the shelves? You've got to give the customers options. The person that doesn't want a tripod might want a squirrel cooker or trivet. I've had items sitting around for years before they sold. It takes time to find the customer that wants it, and until that happens, it collects dust.

Very nice find. I've never understood why blocks weren't marked like anvils since marking anvils was pretty common during the later years. Yours was probably designed with a minimum number of holes because a lot of holes aren't handy for a lot of the trades that were prevalent back then. One of the reasons I've never picked up a block was because they usually have far too many holes and not enough depressions for sinking bowls and the like. You've definitely got a winner on your hands and I hope you have many happy years together.

My bad. Don't know how I missed that, but I'm good at missing things. If you drill a center hole for an axle, she'd make a dandy of a rotating swage block. It might even pay to send it to a place to have the shapes cut out with a water jet or the like. Then all you'd have to do is clean the cuts up with a file and spin her to whatever position you needed for the job.

Unless your rails are a lot different from the ones over here, forging the stuff into a suitable cross section just to start the hammer process will be a huge chore of work. You'd be better served by starting with something closer to the right size/shape like a large pry bar or truck axle. No sense burning up all the fuel and time trying to make a track section work when there are better options down at the local scrap yard or car repair shop.

Bates Tongs are right in the UK and an excellent product. https://www.facebook.com/jezbates.batestongs I don't advocate for making tongs if you're new to the trade. They're safety equipment as much as anything else, and a pair of good tongs that fit the material will make learning the trade orders of magnitude easier. Not only does buying your first dozen pairs of tongs help support working blacksmiths, it increases the speed of your learning because you're not always fighting with the things. For cheap? Consider the price for what you're getting. If you buy v-bit bolt tongs, they'll hold both square and round stock, as well as certain sizes of flat stock. For example, I have a pair of 1/2" v-bit tongs that I use regularly: they hold 1/2", 3/8" round/square, and 3/4x1/8" flat bar. That's three pairs of tongs for the price of one pair. Most any tongs will hold stock that's 1/8" smaller in dimension than their listed sizing. While you're learning, you will be dealing with a very limited size range in your materials. 90% of your projects will revolve around 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" square or round stock because this is the cheapest stuff and you can make all manner of projects with it. That's just two pairs of tongs you need because the 1/2" will hold the 3/8". Box Jaw tongs to hold flat stock are a great addition to the rack, but you're not needing a huge variety of tongs because you won't realistically be working with some incredible range sizes.

Keep it as-is for those times when you need the hole, like John says. For all the effort it'd take to forge-weld it solid, you could more cheaply buy the appropriate alloy of steel that's already solid. Same with cutting it in half and flattening the pieces. It will always be mystery metal, and known alloys will save you a lot of headaches when you're trying to make tools. Of course, a foot or so of it would be great for when you need a monkey tool or three. Depending on the size of the hole in the middle, you could make a nice range of monkey tools and riveting gear simply by cutting the bar to the right length and drilling the hole to the right diameter. I know I sure would like a few chunks for just that!

I've watched Craftsman's Legacy several times and always enjoy it. I think it has the same problem you see on the Woodwright's Shop in that there just isn't enough time for it. Everything's either rushed or cut short in editing to fill the 22-minute time allotment for television. It's definitely head and shoulders better than any of the reality shows, including Forged in Fire, and I highly recommend tuning in if you like seeing how things are done by hand.

A small machinist's vise is really handy if you put a hardy stem on it. You can even clamp the stem in your bench vise so you can hold things in a variety of positions.

That was easy, wasn't it?! Good job, hoss.

The MH anvil at the top would be my second option. It looks good, but the rust pattern on the face leads me to believe someone might have welded up the edges some time back. If the weld job was done properly, it's no big deal. The Soderfors also looks to have really nice edges and would be my first pick. While it's lighter than I'd prefer, that's small potatoes as long as you mount it to a solid stand. That the edges look almost new is a real plus in my book as it saves me having to build a corner block or welding the edges up. While I love Fisher anvils, the one in the photos has the edges pretty well chipped and I'd pass on it.

I saw the ad the other day and don't hold out much hope for the show. While the crew running the shop is certainly very capable, reality TV is what it is and I have no doubt that they'll script it to be more about the beer drinking and social life of the people rather than the actual work they're doing. Good on those guys as I'm sure they'll get paid better for acting on the show than they could ever hope to bring in as smiths.

Here's a wonderful example from an Austrian smithy that was turned into a hotel. I think it's important that the rack showcase the smith's talents, and that it's angled so you can see all of the tools hanging there. As soon as I clear some wall space, this will get moved to the top of the to-do list.

I'm a master at screwing things up and having everything go wrong. It's just comes to me naturally. The best thing I've found when I'm having one of those "can't pour water out of a boot" kind of weeks is to take a nice long break and don't do anything for a few days. This gives the gremlins time to search for greener pastures. When you do return, start on a dead-simple project that doesn't require the forge. Maybe do some sheetmetal stuff that's just simply bends and drilling for rivets. Keep the project very very easy so there's little chance of anything going wrong. Lately, I've gotten into making key fobs from large washers. All I use is a punch and some chisels to make a neat design and the only time the forge comes into play is when I need to heat the piece up for final waxing. Because it's "free form" work, you really can't go wrong with the design or execution.

Ah, but it's okay for you to offend people? The rhyme is the rhyme, and that's all there is to it. If you're offended by the word "black" or if you infer anything from the rhyme, that's entirely on you and society doesn't need to bend knee to your every whim. The key problem with all this "editing" is that you're picking and choosing who it's okay to offend and who it's not. Traditionalists like myself are told to "get over it." Right? Instead of telling the perpetually-offended that they're off kilter and to get over it, you choose to tell another group the exact same thing. What makes that group so special that their feelings trump mine?

Cable sizing die. The nicely radiused holes prevent damage to the steel wires and the hole makes sure everything is a uniform diameter. I could be wrong, though....

I've got a project coming up that will require two handles for some large barn-style doors and I'm leaning towards doing something with a bean end simply because it's new to me. However, I'm finding info on the 'net somewhat scarce. I found one video, but it was only a partial and didn't give any details on stock size, etc. I was thinking about an overall length of the handles around 14". I might go with a more pointed tip like on the Suffolk latch/handle. It's all up in the air right now as I ponder the steps needed to go from start to finish. I'll get some practice in this evening, but any info/blueprints that could cut the learning curve would be appreciated.

Very nice work. I've no doubt you could sell pieces like that, but you have to reach the customers that have a grand or two to spend on fancy stuff. I did an image search for the clayton knot jig with no luck.

30mm will make you a smallish hammer, but there's still plenty of things you need small hammers for. A leafing hammer, for example, doesn't need to be super strong alloy because you're only tinkering around on thin metal that's also hot and malleable. Will it harden? Does it really need to? I'd say no. Even if it's dead soft, you can use that hammer for a mighty long time if you're just doing light tapping. If it will take some hardness, I think it's fair to say that it will need a water quench rather than oil -- which makes for a very easy clean-up. The bottom line is that making some small hammers and top tools from the stuff will give you plenty of practice so you're ready when it comes time to make bigger hammers and top tools out of harder alloys. When your skills are better developed, you can start forge-welding high-carbon faces onto those rebar hammers and you'll have a real treat of a tool that will make all the other smiths jealous.

As long as you have the door cracked and the window open, you should be fine. A fan would certainly help move the air and keep any pesky gas buildup at bay. My "shop" is just a garage and I've never had a problem -- but I'm also real careful with the air circulation even when it's freezing cold outside. With the forge running it's plenty warm enough to keep the winter chill at bay.

A perfect example of people thinking they know something but really not even knowing what they don't know. And because they're seen as "authorities" by the visitors, the visitors walk away with a head full of mush. Nice shop, though.

What'd you use for the bowl depression in your swage? I've been looking for something around 6" in diameter, but haven't found anything...